Dedicated to the history, origins, and genealogy of the JONES surname.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Average Age Admission, Oxford 1500-1599 For Jones Surname

Researching the JONES surname often requires some additional work. How to get around all those brick walls when they present their ugly heads seem to be a common experience. For me this occurred in my JONES family tree climbing when I discovered a number of family members attended that university called Oxford. Thomas, Richard, and Henry, all coming from Wales between 1500 and 1599. How does one go about sorting out all those with the first name Thomas, Richard, and Henry? Over the years, a detailed chronology has served to help separate many among the branches. See:

To aid this chronology, I asked what was the average age of those who where admitted to Oxford for the years 1500-1599? This was necessary since there were 146 individuals with the surname JONES admitted to Oxford, and only 72 gave their ages at admission. [49%] Knowing the average age at admission, no matter what the first name, would allow one to estimate a birth year. The figure above shows the results of this study.

There were 72 individuals with the surname JONES admitted to Oxford with the age at admission given. The range was 12 years [the youngest], to 30 years old [the oldest]. The average age at admission was 17.32 years. The most common age was tied between age 16 and age 19 [ each with 12]. Two folks were at the upper range of 29 and 30 years. Removing these two in the totals would only change the average age to 16.97 years. So, overall, it would seem that the JONES "young ins" were around 17 years old when they left Wales to visit the big city. If a Richard JONES was admitted 1576 and no age at admission was listed, it would estimate his birth year around 1559. A starting point for exploring those JONES families having children around 1559 in the area of Wales.